The Medical Association of Malta and the Association of Public Health Medicine, in a joint statement, said that they are “seriously concerned” about the current situation on Covid-19 and have written “confidentially” to the Superintendent of Public Health requesting more measures to bring numbers down.

The Associations said that the 14-day average daily new cases are still the second highest in Europe, with tourism being the hardest hit.

At 46 cases per day Malta now has the second highest rate of new cases (14-day average) in the entire EU.As a result, the Associations said at least 16 EU countries have introduced travel restrictions to/from Malta, and arrivals have decreased significantly, with serious and long term sustained economic consequences on the tourism sector. “Measures have to be taken to bring this number to under 10/day as soon as possible.”

They stressed that although health care services are coping, spread is however increasing among the vulnerable. Despite the daily number of new cases, health care services are still coping, with only one additional death in this second peak and a limited number of hospital admissions.

“Inevitably, as numbers increase among vulnerable patients, the risk of avoidable deaths increases,” the Associations said. “Furthermore 10% of patients admitted to Mater Dei may need many months to recover their normal health status. Every effort should be made to keep numbers manageable by the health services.”

They went on to say that “a choice exists between continuing with the current measures which may or may not reduce the numbers slowly, and introducing further measures to decrease the number of daily cases at a faster rate.”

Should Malta manage to decrease the number of new cases back to June levels, this would reap both public health and economic benefits, the Associations said.

They reiterated that “Malta needs to bring the numbers down rapidly to reopen its ports and support the tourism sector, but it must also regain the confidence of foreign governments to reverse travel restrictions.

Furthermore, Malta can only promote itself as a safe island for tourists once it is indeed safe by epidemiological standards, they said.

They stated that “further restrictive measures are necessary, However these are left to be decided by the Superintendent of Public Health. Wherever they are introduced financial compensation to businesses and support of affected employees must be continued.”

“Make boarding a plane/ship inbound to Malta only after a valid test (PCR) performed 72 hours prior to departure from ALL countries, including Maltese nationals returning from abroad until a vaccine is found.” They added that “anyone who still enters Malta without a valid test should be swabbed on arrival at their own cost, and only allowed to enter Malta once the test is performed.”

The Association added that, “random testing of a few incoming passengers from “amber” regions has already uncovered 3 positive cases. This is a high rate, and there could be many more whom we would have missed since testing is random. Increasing the testing capacity is essential. Imported cases must be reduced to zero.”

The statement concluded that “the expiry date for vouchers should be extended until the end of December. Vouchers were made to kickstart the economy however by encouraging people to move out of their homes they are kickstarting the epidemic rendering them counterproductive to the economy.”

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